www.listen-to-enghlish.com (podcast) 1
Đây là tài liệu luyện nghe tiếng anh được copy từ trang web listen-to-enghlish.com, mình đã download
các file mp3 các bạn có thể vừa nghe và có thể theo dõi theo bài nghe. Các file mp3 mình sẽ upload sau
hoặc các bạn có thể ghé thăm trang web để nghe và downlaod về nghe. Chúc các bạn học tốt môn anh
văn. Chúng ta cùng chia sẽ tài liệu để học tiếng anh được tốt hơn nhé, email cho mình nếu bạn nào có
trang web hay hoặc tài liệu hay muốn chia sẽ.
Thanks so much!
http://www.listen-to-english.com
ngoài ra các bạn có thể tham khảo thêm ở trang để luyện kỹ năng nghe.
http://www.world-english.org/listening.htm
http://www.abc.net.au/newsradio/
http://www.voanews.com
The Longest Name ........................................................................................................................................3
A wet summer, and the Olympic Games ......................................................................................................3
Break up .........................................................................................................................................................4
Better ..............................................................................................................................................................5
Stonehenge .....................................................................................................................................................7
How much does the Queen cost? ..................................................................................................................8
How much does the Queen cost? - exercise .............................................................................................9
Alfred Brendel Calls Time ..........................................................................................................................10
Captain Calamity .........................................................................................................................................11
Getting married ............................................................................................................................................12
Kevin gets cold feet .....................................................................................................................................13
Godiva and Peeping Tom ............................................................................................................................14
The Worst Poet ............................................................................................................................................15
Bank Holiday ...............................................................................................................................................16
Bank Holiday - Grammar and Vocabulary Note ....................................................................................17
How to stay warm ........................................................................................................................................17
I get my car repaired. You get your hair cut. ..............................................................................................18
The Great Smell ...........................................................................................................................................20
Lost and Found ............................................................................................................................................21

Frustrated .....................................................................................................................................................57
Eddie the Eagle ............................................................................................................................................58
Eddie the Eagle - vocabulary note ..........................................................................................................59
New Year .....................................................................................................................................................61
New Year - vocabulary note ...................................................................................................................62
[email protected]
www.listen-to-enghlish.com (podcast) 3
The Longest Name
Tuesday 16 September 2008
The name sign on the railway station at Llanfair PG.
Once upon a time, there was a village in north Wales called Llanfair. Llanfair means, simply, “the
church of St Mary” in the Welsh language, and there are many other places in Wales called Llanfair. The
particular Llanfair in this story was called Llanfair Pwllgwyngyll, to distinguish it from the other places
called Llanfair. The name Llanfair Pwllgwyngyll means, in English, “the church of St Mary beside the
hollow (or little valley) with the white hazel tree”. I think you will agree that Llanfair Pwllgwyngyll is
perhaps too long for normal, everyday use. And English speaking people like me often find Welsh names
difficult to pronounce. So people shortened the name to Llanfair PG. And people often still call the
village Llanfair PG today.
In the 1850s, a railway line was built along the coast of north Wales. It ran to Holyhead, which was the
main port for ships sailing to Ireland. The railway line was busy and important. But only a few trains
stopped at the station at Llanfair PG, and only a few visitors came to the village.
How could Llanfair PG attract more visitors? “I know,” said a man who lived near the village. “We need
a new name. A special name. A name that people will remember. A name that will make people say
‘That’s interesting. I really want to visit that place’”. So he suggested a new name – the longest place
name in Britain. And other people agreed, and so the village was re-named
Llanfairpwllgwyngyllgogerychwyrndrobwllllantysiliogogogoch. (That was not me speaking, by the way.
That was a real Welsh person speaking real Welsh!) What did the new name mean? In English it is: “The
church of St Mary beside the hollow with the white hazel tree and the rapid whirlpool and the church of
St Tysilio with the red cave”. They put up a new name sign in the railway station, and it was the longest
railway name sign in Britain. And they waited for the tourists to come.

will fall further. The fall in house prices has been the fastest for over 25 years. This is bad news if you
own your house already; it is good news if you do not own a house but would like to buy one.
However, the really awful thing – the thing that makes British people really gloomy – is the weather. It
has rained since the end of July. We have had the wettest August for many years. And there has been
hardly any sunshine. In many places, August has been the dullest August (that is, the least sunny August)
since 1927. It is still raining. And the weather forecast is – yes, more rain.
I am glad to say, however, that the summer has had one happy thing for Britain. At the Olympic Games
in Beijing, British athletes won 45 medals. That is the highest number of medals since 1908. We even
won more medals than the Australians, which is very satisfying. So, while the rain poured down, we
could at least watch the Olympic Games on television. The next Olympic Games, in 2012, will take
place in London. Will they be the wettest Olympic Games ever? Or will it stop raining before then?
Break up
Monday 21 July 2008
This car is being broken up in a scrap yard. Photo by Olly Clark/flickr
[email protected]
www.listen-to-enghlish.com (podcast) 5
There is an English phrasal verb “to break up”. It means to break into pieces. Here are some examples of
ways in which we can use it.
Imagine a storm at sea. The wind and the waves drive a ship onto the rocks. The waves smash the ship
into pieces. The ship breaks up.
Or, think about the great ice sheets in the Arctic and the Antarctic. Many scientists say that, because the
world’s climate is getting warmer, the ice sheets are starting to break up.
Or, think about a really old car. You have had it for many years. You and it have had some fine
adventures together. But now the engine does not start. And when, eventually, it does start, there are
horrible clunking sounds and a cloud of black smoke comes out of the exhaust pipe. The car is finished.
You take the car to the scrap yard where they break it up, so that the metal and some of the parts can be
re-used.
And sometimes we say that a relationship breaks up. For instance, Joe and Mary have been going out
together for a few months. They are boyfriend and girlfriend. But then they disagree and argue. Joe starts
to think that he really doesn’t like Mary very much. Mary starts to think that Joe is selfish and boring.

some milk this morning,” she says. Kevin looks at his watch. It is nearly 7.30am. “I had better go now,”
he says. “I have to go to a meeting at 8.30.” “Yes,” says Joanne. “You had better hurry, otherwise you
will miss the train. And it is raining. You had better take an umbrella”.
In Birmingham, where I live, there is a bus company. Actually, there are lots of bus companies, because
our government believes that competition in public transport is a good thing. Our government is wrong.
Britain has some of the worst public transport in Europe. But that is different podcast. One of our
competing bus companies has a slogan on the side of its buses. It says: “better buses, better service,
better catch one”. This is what it means.
Better buses…
“Better buses” – the company has better buses. But better than what? Better than the buses of the other
bus companies? Better than the old buses which it used to have? I suppose that “better buses” is OK as
an advertising slogan, but if you want people to understand exactly what you mean, remember to use the
word “than” – “better buses than our old buses”, for example.
“Better service” – This means more frequent buses, more reliable buses. Perhaps the company means
that they now run buses late in the evening and on Sundays.
And “better catch one” is short for “you had better catch one”. In other words, it would be a good idea to
catch one of our wonderful better buses. Remember that in English, we can take a bus or a train or a
plane; or we can catch a bus or a train or a plane.
Now you know all about “I had better”. There is a quiz with the podcast today. You can find it on the
website. Now it is late. I had better stop now. I had better go to the supermarket. I had better cook supper
for the children. I had better say goodbye.
Download MP3 (3:57min, 4MB)
[email protected]
www.listen-to-enghlish.com (podcast) 7
Stonehenge
Friday 04 July 2008
A rainbow behind Stonehenge. This remarkable photo was taken by Lucille Pine/flickr
In today’s podcast, we talk about some theories. We talk about things which may be true, or may not be
true. We use words like “perhaps” and “maybe” and “it could be that..”. See how many examples you
can find.

today.
- Or Stonehenge might have been a place to watch the movement of the sun, moon and stars, and to
forecast important events like eclipses.
- Or, conceivably, it was all of these things, or it had different purposes at different times.
Today, Stonehenge is an important tourist site, and a place for people who like to believe in magic. At
the summer solstice (that is June 21st, the longest day of the year) people go to Stonehenge to watch the
sun rise. This year, about 30,000 people were there. And, because this is England, it rained
How much does the Queen cost?
Monday 30 June 2008
Queen Elizabeth II
Thank you all for your e-mails, and for your suggestions about subjects for future podcasts.
A listener in France has asked, can I make a podcast about the Queen? And several other listeners have
said that they would like some help with listening to numbers (which is always one of the most difficult
things in any foreign language). I am going to kill two birds with one stone, as we say in English. This
podcast is about the Queen, and also about listening to numbers. I have left gaps in the script where there
are numbers,. Try to fill in the numbers as you hear them. You can check on the website whether you
have heard them correctly.
Queen Elizabeth (a)..... came to the throne in (b)....., following the death of her father, King George©......
She is now (d)..... years old, and she has been Queen for (e)..... years. She is the (f)..... monarch (that is,
king or queen) since the Norman Conquest of England in the year (g)...... What sort of things does she
do?
The Queen has all sorts of official engagements in this country – visits to towns and cities, to schools
and hospitals, to open new buildings and to attend official dinners. Last year she had (h)..... official
engagements, which is (i)..... more than in (j)......
The Queen makes official visits to other countries too. Since she came to the throne, the Queen has made
over (k)..... visits to about (l)..... different countries. Last year , she visited the United States, Uganda,
Belgium and the Netherlands.
The Queen sends messages of congratulations to everyone in Britain who reaches their (m)..... birthday.
Since (n)....., she has sent (o)..... of these messages. She has also sent more than (p)..... messages of
congratulation to married couples who are celebrating their “diamond wedding”, that is the (q).....

(c) the sixth (King George VI)
(d) 82
(e) 56
(f) 40th
(g) 1066
(h) 440
(i) 60
(j) 2006
(k) 260
(l) 126
(m) 100th
(n) 1952
(o) 100,000 (note that in English we use a comma to separate thousands in big numbers)
(p) 280,000
(q) 60th
(r) 2007
(s) £40,000,000 (generally, in written English we would normally write £40 million)
(t) £2 million
(u) 6.1% (in English we use a full-stop, not a comma, when we write decimals)
(v) 2006
(w) 3.1%
(x) 7
(y) £40 million
(z) 61 million
(aa) £40 million
(bb) 66 pence
(cc) 66 pence
(dd) £6.2 million
(ee) 19
(ff) £18,916

all day on a project for school or college. It is now the evening and you are tired. Yes, there are some
more things you could do, but you decide to stop now and go to bed. You “call it a day”. Alfred Brendel
has decided, at the age of 77, to “call it a day” too.
Alfred Brendel is a remarkable man. He was born in what is now the Czech Republic in 1931. His family
were not musical, and he had little formal training on the piano. Nonetheless, he made a successful
career as a pianist from the 1950s. Since the 1970s, he has lived in Britain. He is not only a famous
pianist, he also writes about music, and writes poetry, both in English and in German. When he retires, at
the end of this year, he wants to spend more time writing and teaching.
[email protected]
www.listen-to-enghlish.com (podcast) 11
For the last 15 years, Alfred Brendel has come regularly to Birmingham to play in Symphony Hall. Last
night, I attended his last concert here. Every ticket was sold, every seat in the hall was occupied. When
he played, the audience was completely silent. As we say in English, you could have heard a pin drop.
Alfred Brendel’s playing is very personal and very direct. It is as if he was in your sitting room, playing
specially for you. At the end of the concert, we gave him a standing ovation, and he gave us two encores.
It was a memorable occasion, though also a rather sad occasion.
To end the podcast, here is Alfred Brendel playing some music by Schubert. May he have a long and
happy retirement.
Download MP3 (5:20min, 3MB)
Captain Calamity
Friday 20 June 2008
I could not find a picture or Forwick, but here is one of another part of the Shetlands, so that you can see
what the landscape looks like. It was taken by tigernuts/flickr
In the past year, we have had two podcasts about English people who have gone to Scotland to do
slightly crazy things. We had Andy Strangeway, who has spent a night on every island in Scotland. Then
we had Steve Feltham, who has spent the last 17 years looking for the Loch Ness monster. Today we
meet Stuart Hill. He lives on a tiny island in Shetland (a group of islands to the north of Scotland), and
he has just declared his island to be an independent state.
This is not the first time that Stuart Hill has been in the news. He has a nickname, “Captain Calamity”.
(A “calamity” is another word for a “disaster”). This is why. He comes from Essex in eastern England.

This audio file has been downloaded 37993 times
Getting married
Tuesday 17 June 2008
While I was searching Flickr, I found this wonderful picture of a wedding cake. By princess of Ilyr/flickr
who likes taking photos of food!
Our podcast today is about weddings. I hope you will learn some new English words. There is a quiz
attached to the podcast today so that you can test how much you know.
In England, you can get married in a church, or you can have a civil wedding (that is, a non-religious
wedding) . Until about 10 years ago, civil weddings always took place at a Registry Office. Nowdays,
however, you can get married in all sorts of places – in hotels, in country houses, and in many mosques
and Hindu temples, for example.
A wedding can be very expensive. One website that I have seen says that the average cost of a wedding
in Britain is over £11,000. Here are some of the things that many couples will want for their wedding:
• a wedding-dress for the bride, and dresses for her bridesmaids;
• wedding rings for the bride and the bridegroom;
• flowers for the church or the place where the wedding is held;
• a reception (that is, a party or a formal meal) for the wedding guests after the wedding ceremony;
• a wedding cake;
• a professional photographer, to take pictures or videos of the wedding;
• a honeymoon (a holiday) for the newly-married couple after the wedding.
And there are lots more things to spend money on if you want to. Some couples want to hire a beautiful
horse-drawn carriage, or a vintage Rolls Royce car to take them away after the wedding. Some people
even fly to holiday resorts in Mexico or Thailand to get married, and their families and friends fly there
too.
[email protected]
www.listen-to-enghlish.com (podcast) 13
There is no such thing as a “typical wedding”. Every couple getting married has to decide for themselves
what sort of wedding they want – a religious wedding, or a civil wedding; a big wedding with lots of
guests; or a small, simple wedding.
I went to a wedding last weekend. It was definitely not a typical wedding, but you might be interested in

other course participants learned how parachutes work, and how to open the parachute in the air, and
how to land on the ground safely. But today, the instructors will take them up in a small aeroplane, and
they will make their first real parachute jump.
Kevin feels ill. Three months ago, in the pub, jumping out of an aeroplane with a parachute was a great
idea. Now Kevin thinks, “Why did I say that I would do this?” Jumping out of an aeroplane is a crazy
[email protected]
www.listen-to-enghlish.com (podcast) 14
thing to do. Suppose he cannot make the parachute work. He would fall hundreds of meters and be
killed. Or maybe his parachute will work, but he will land in a river, or in a tree, or on the roof of a
house, or in a field with a mad bull. He imagines himself, lying on the ground with a broken ankle, with
the mad bull snorting angrily at him.
In other words, Kevin has cold feet. Three months ago, he was enthusiastic about the parachute jump.
Now he thinks it is a stupid idea. Perhaps he could pretend to be ill, or that his aunt has just died and he
needs to go to her funeral. Yes – Kevin has cold feet.
Kevin arrives at the little airfield where the course is taking place The other course participants all seem
a little quiet this morning. Perhaps they have cold feet too.
Then the instructor comes out of his office. “Bad news, I am afraid,” he says. “There is a mechanical
problem with the aircraft, and it will take two or three days to fix it. So – I’m sorry – but we won’t be
able to do the parachute jump today.” And everyone on the course says how disappointed they are, and
how they had really been looking forward to the parachute jump, and what bad luck it is that the
aeroplane cannot fly. And Kevin says all these things too. But secretly, inside, he is relieved. And he
thinks that some of the other people on the course look relieved too.
Godiva and Peeping Tom
Thursday 05 June 2008
Maureen O Hara starred as Godiva in a 1955 Holywood film.
Do you know the English word “to peep”? If I “peep” at something, it means that I look at it quickly and
secretly, and I hope that no-one notices. For example, I buy a birthday present for my daughter. She
wants to know what the present is. But it is not her birthday yet, so I do not tell her. Quietly she goes
upstairs and peeps into the bag, to see what the present is.
Or, I hear someone walking up the path to my house. Is it the postman? I peep out of the window to see

and factories. He became a jute weaver in Dundee, a town on the east coast of Scotland. (Jute is a fibre
which is used to make sacks. In the 19th century, Dundee was the centre of the jute industry in Britain).
It was in 1877, when William was 52 years old, that he suddenly discovered that he was a poet. Not just
a poet – a great poet – possibly the finest poet since Shakespeare.
Over the next 25 years, Willam McGonagall wrote a large number of poems. He wrote about the great
public events of the day, like the attempt to assassinate Queen Victoria, and the funeral of the Emperor
of Germany. He was particularly fond of disasters, like shipwrecks and railway accidents. He wrote
about famous battles, and about people and places that he knew.
And his poetry was bad. It was so bad that it almost became good, if you see what I mean. It was like
someone playing a musical instrument, loudly and confidently, but completely out of tune and without
any sense of rhythm. It was like a newspaper report turned into poetry. Here are some examples.
In 1878, a railway bridge was built over the river Tay near Dundee. At the time, it was the longest bridge
in the world. It was a triumph of British engineering, and the nation felt proud. Naturally, William
McGonagall wrote a poem about it. It began:
Beautiful railway bridge over the silvery Tay!
With your numerous arches and pillars in so grand array,
[email protected]
www.listen-to-enghlish.com (podcast) 16
And your central girders, which seem to the eye
To be almost towering to the sky.
Less than two years later, the Tay bridge collapsed in a storm while a train was passing over it. Many
people were killed. McGonagall wrote:
Beautiful railway bridge over the silvery Tay!
Alas! I am very sorry to say
That ninety lives have been taken away
On the last Sabbath day of 1879
Which will be remembered for a very long time.
A new Tay Bridge was completed in 1887, and of course William wrote a poem for the occasion. I think
you can guess how it began.
Beautiful new railway bridge over the silvery Tay!

can take a long weekend break if they wish. Tomorrow, for example, is the May Day Bank Holiday,
which is on the first Monday in May every year. We have another bank holiday, the Spring Bank
Holiday, on the last Monday in May; and another bank holiday on the last Monday in August.
In Scotland and Ireland they have bank holidays on the feast days of their patron saints – St Andrew’s
Day (30 November) in Scotland, and St Patrick’s Day (17 March) in Ireland. But although we poor
English have a patron saint, St George, we do not get a holiday on St George’s Day on 23 April. This is
not fair.
So, what do we English do on our bank holidays? We visit friends and relatives. Or perhaps we stay in
bed until lunch-time. We dig our gardens and we mow our lawns. We go to football or cricket matches.
We go to huge out-of-town superstores to buy curtains and things for the kitchen. We do DIY jobs
around the house, like painting the bedroom or putting up a new shelf in the bathroom. And if the
weather is good, we get in our cars and we go to the seaside. There we sit on the sand and eat ice-creams.
At the end of the day, we get back into our cars and drive home. We get stuck in enormous traffic jams
on the motorways. The children argue and fight in the back of the car. We arrive home tired but happy
late in the evening. A perfect bank holiday! It’s such a pity we have to get up in the morning and go to
work.
Download MP3 (3:59min, 2MB)
Bank Holiday - Grammar and Vocabulary Note
Sunday 04 May 2008
“DIY” means “do it yourself”. A “DIY job” is something like decorating a room, or installing a new
shower. At one time, people generally employed a professional decorator, or a plumber, to do these
things. Nowdays many people do these jobs for themselves. A “DIY” store is a store which sells paint,
wallpaper, wood, tools, and everything else you need if you want to “do it yourself”.
“A day off work” – a day when you don’t go to work eg because you have a holiday, or because you are
sick. You can ask your boss, “Please can I have a day off tomorrow”.
“A long weekend” is when you take a day off on Friday, or on Monday, or even on both Friday and
Monday, in order to have three or four consecutive days when you do not have to work. We can say, for
example, “I am going to take a long weekend and go and visit my brother in Scotland”.
“A break” means a short holiday. “A weekend break” is when you go away just for the weekend.
“It is [such] a pity that…” or “It is [such] a shame that …” These expressions mean “unfortunately”.

heat will not be able to escape, and the water will stay warm for a long time. And on cold winter nights,
the pump will pump the warm water back into the pipes underneath the road. The warm water will heat
the road surface and keep it free of ice.
The scientists and technologists call this technology “Interseasonal Heat Transfer”, or IHT. It is of
course a very simple technology, but many people think that intelligent use of simple technology will be
very important in the future. Climate change and the rising prices of fossil fuels like coal, gas and oil
make it urgent to find new ways of doing things which will not damage the environment. If we can store
heat from roads, car parks, airport runways, roofs, school playgrounds etc in summer, we could use the
heat during the winter – not just for keeping roads free of ice, but for heating buildings and providing hot
water.
In the last podcast, I asked you to imagine that you were very rich, and had lots of servants. Naturally,
you have a tennis court and a swimming pool – probably you have three tennis courts and two swimming
pools. How will you keep your swimming pools warm in winter? Easy – place pipes filled with water
under the tennis courts to collect heat from the sun in summer. Store the hot water in insulated tanks and
use it to heat the swimming pools in winter.
Download MP3 (4:38min, 2MB)
I get my car repaired. You get your hair cut.
Friday 25 April 2008
[email protected]
www.listen-to-enghlish.com (podcast) 19
We get our milk delivered. Photo of a milkman with his milk float by Hembo Pagi/flickr
My car does not go. I don’t know what is wrong with it. The engine won’t start. The car will not move.
What shall I do?
I will get the car repaired. That means – I will not repair the car myself. I will ask someone else to do it,
and they will repair the car for me. Look at the way we can talk about this in English.
I will get my car repaired.
I will have my car repaired.
I will get the garage to repair my car.
I will have the garage repair my car.
Now here is something which we all need, but which we cannot do for ourselves – cutting our hair.

Sunday 20 April 2008
The Stink! Photo by whizchickenonabun/flickr
In the last podcast, I said that I would tell you how Birmingham did in their match against Aston Villa.
Well, they lost 5-1. Sorry, Birmingham! Birmingham could still stay in the Premiership next season, but
things are not looking good. The nail-biting continues.
Now for our story today. It started on Thursday evening last week. People in the south-east of England
noticed a strange smell in the air. It was not a pleasant smell. Rather, it was the smell of rotten things, of
manure and sewage, mixed with the smell of traffic fumes. People started to complain – to the
newspapers and TV stations, and to the weather forecasters at the Meteorological Office. What was it?
Well, said the Meteorological Office, the cause of the Great Smell was this. There was a mass of cold,
still air over northern Europe. There was low cloud and no wind. All sorts of smells and fumes – from
industry and from farms, from traffic and from everyday life – had become trapped under the cloud.
Then on Thursday, the cold air, and its smells, had moved westwards over southern England.
“What?” said our newspapers. “You mean, it isn’t a good, healthy English smell. It’s a nasty foreign
smell.” And the newspapers started to run stories about how the smell was all the fault of the French,
because we English always blame the French first whenever anything bad happens. However, it then
became clear that the smell was coming, not from France, but from further north and east. So we started
to blame the Germans and the Dutch, because we English always blame the Germans and the Dutch
second whenever anything bad happens.
The Meteorological Office tried to explain that the smell was not a threat to health, and that it would
blow away in the next few days. But the newspapers did not want to listen. They were having too much
fun blaming foreigners.
The truth, of course, is this:
1. there was nothing more interesting for the newspapers to report;
2. people who live in towns get used to town smells, like traffic fumes and fast-food restaurants. They
forget that there are country smells too, like the smell of manure being spread on fields.
3. many newspapers forget that England too has serious pollution problems. Normally, the westerly
winds carry our pollution over to other countries, so maybe it is fair that occasionally other countries’
polluted air comes to us.
And what can you learn from this story? First, remember that “smell” in English is a neutral word. We

she says. She looks for the keys in the kitchen. Perhaps she left them on the kitchen table when they were
making biscuits. But the keys are not there.
She searches for the keys in the sitting room. Perhaps they have fallen down the back of the sofa. But the
keys are not there.
She hunts for the keys in the bedroom. Perhaps she put them down on the dressing-table. But the keys
are not there.
She searches high and low, but the keys are nowhere to be found.
“Have you seen my car keys, Nick?” says Joanne.
“Down the toilet”, says Nick.
“What?” says Joanne. “Nick, did you put the keys down the toilet?”
“Don’t know”, says Nick, helpfully. “Can I have another biscuit?”
Joanne rushes to the bathroom and looks into the toilet. No keys.
By this time, Joanne is getting desperate. She told her sister that Nick would be home at 5.30. It is now
5.45. The door opens. Kevin comes in. He is in a good mood. He has been to a football match, where his
team won 2-0. And he is carrying Joanne’s car keys.
[email protected]
www.listen-to-enghlish.com (podcast) 22
“Where did you find them?” asks Joanne.
“You left them in the car ignition“, says Kevin. “You are lucky that no-one drove your car away. Oh, I
smell biscuits. Can I have one?”
Download MP3 (4:04min, 2MB)
How to enter the kitchen!
Friday 19 September 2008
A mouse in the kitchen! Photo by yeimaya/flickr.
I have some poetry for you in today’s podcast. It is a poem by a woman called Susie Paskins, and it is
called “How to enter the kitchen”.
Let me first explain what the poem is about. Susie has a problem. There is a mouse in her kitchen! She
knows that the mouse is there – somewhere in the kitchen – and she does not like it. So what does she
do? She makes lots of noise when she goes into the kitchen. She does not look in the corners of the
room, where the mouse might be. She sings loudly when she puts water in the kettle to boil. She pretends

And make too much noise
To confront them.
So they run away
And hide in the secret places.
But perhaps
You should quietly tiptoe
To the corner and wait.
And then you might see,
And not be afraid
Of what lives in the dark.
Poem originally published in Quaker Monthly, March 2008. Reproduced here by permission.
1. The mouse makes lots of noise in the kitchen.
A. ? True
B. ? False
2. Which of these things does Susie Paskins NOT do?
A. ? She stamps her feet on the ground to make lots of noise.
B. ? She avoids looking in the corners where the mouse might be.
C. ? She calls the police.
D. ? She pretends that she is not worried about the mouse.
3. "Fling the door wide" means ....
A. ? ..knock on the door before opening it.
B. ? ...open the door quietly so that the mouse does not hear.
C. ? ...open the door quickly and fully.
4. If Susie looked in the corner of the kithen. she might see...
A. ? the kettle
B. ? a black shadow
C. ? the mouse, running to hide
5. Susie "pretends a certainty she does not feel". This means:
A. ? She acts confidently, even though she is afraid of the mouse.
B. ? She thinks that the mouse will run over her feet.

I could do with a haircut. Artwork by Lorrie McClanahan/flickr
In today’s podcast we meet the English expression “I could do with…”
“I could do with…” is an indirect way of saying “I need…” If I say “I could do with” something, it
means “I need” something.
So, if I say to my teenage son, “You could do with a haircut“, I mean “Your hair is too long and you
need to get it cut”.
One more thing before we start. The expression always uses the conditional “could” form of the verb.
We always say “I could do with..”, and never “I can do with..” OK?
It is the weekend. Kevin’s plans include an afternoon in front of the television watching football.
Joanne however has other ideas. “The house could do with cleaning“, she says. “I will start on the
kitchen now, but this afternoon I could do with some help.”
Kevin protests that he wants to watch the football. “United could do with a win today,” he adds. Joanne
says that United will win even if he does not watch them play. “We could do with some more floor
cleaner,” she says. “Please could you go to the shops and buy some.”
So Kevin walks to the shops while Joanne sets to work, cleaning the kitchen. Kevin returns about twenty
minutes later, a little out of breath. “I could do with a rest,” he says. And he sits down on a chair and
watches Joanne cleaning the floor.
“Kevin, you are out of breath because you are too fat,” says Joanne. “You could do with losing some
weight.”
“What?” says Kevin, horrified.
“Yes. You could do with going swimming twice a week, or going to the gym.”
An idea comes into Kevin’s mind. At the gym, they have a cafe with a TV set. He could go to the gym,
and watch the football on television instead of exercising.
“You’re right,” says Kevin, “I could do with some exercise. I’ll go to the gym this afternoon.”
“Nice try, Kevin,” says Joanne. “You can stay here and do some exercise at home. The carpet could do
with vacuuming, and the lawn could do with being mowed.”
Three hours later, Kevin and Joanne are sitting on the sofa. They are exhausted, but the house is clean
and tidy for the first time in weeks. “I could do with a drink,” says Joanne, “and I could do with
something to eat.”
“I’m tired,” says Kevin. “I could do with a shower and an early night.”